118. Parking Is Hell

Freakonomics Radio

Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher

Documentary, Society & Culture

4.6 • 32K Ratings

🗓️ 13 March 2013

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

There ain't no such thing as a free parking spot. Somebody has to pay for it -- and that somebody is everybody.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I think, you know, 50 years from now and people look back on New York and of course other
0:08.3	cities that they'll say what did these people think they were stupid?
0:14.0	That's Donald Shoeop.
0:15.5	He is a college professor at UCLA who is obsessed, well, not really fair to call him obsessed,
0:22.0	who is, yeah, actually he is obsessed.
0:25.5	He's obsessed with this one thing that we all do all over the world and that we do so
0:29.8	badly in Shoeop's opinion that someday we'll look back at it the way we now look back
0:35.5	at bloodletting.
0:37.9	Seriously?
0:38.9	Bloodletting?
0:39.9	It seemed scientific because there were elaborate tables and diagrams and it had to be done
0:46.5	by surgeons and stuff.
0:49.0	Now it was very harmful.
0:50.9	The other comparison which I think is much more appropriate is lead therapy.
0:57.5	Lead was thought to be a wonderful healing device and it is because it's toxic to microorganisms
1:05.9	and therefore if you put it on a wound it would help kill the infection but people didn't
1:11.9	know that it also damaged the brain.
1:16.3	Okay.
1:17.3	So what do you think Professor Shoeop is talking about?
1:19.7	What is this thing we do so badly that future generations will compare it to bloodletting
1:25.9	and lead therapy?
1:28.0	Maybe the most mismanaged of all our resources is parko.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.